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joewein.de LLC
fighting spam and scams on the Internet
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"419" Scam – Advance Fee / Fake Lottery Scam
The so-called "419" scam is a type of fraud dominated by criminals from Nigeria and other countries in Africa. Victims of the scam are promised a large amount of money, such as a lottery prize, inheritance, money sitting in some bank account, etc.
Victims never receive this non-existent fortune but are tricked into sending their money to the criminals, who remain anonymous. They hide their real identity and location by using fake names and fake postal addresses as well as communicating via anonymous free email accounts and mobile phones.
Keep in mind that scammers DO NOT use their real names when defrauding people.
The criminals either abuse names of real people or companies or invent names or addresses.
Any real people or companies mentioned below have NO CONNECTION to the scammers!
Read more about such scams here or in our 419 FAQ. Use the Scam-O-Matic to verify suspect emails.
Click here to report a problem with this page.
Some comments by the Scam-O-Matic about the following email:
- This email uses a separate reply address that is different from the sender address. Spammers use this to get replies even when the original spam sending accounts have been shut down. Also, sometimes the sender addresses are legitimate looking but fake and only the reply address is actually an email account controlled by the scammers.
- The following phrases in this message should put you on alert:
- "million dollars" (they want you to be blinded by the prospect of quick money, but the only money that ever changes hands in 419 scams is from you to the criminals)
- This email message is a 419 scam. Please see our 419 FAQ for more details on such scams.
Fraud email example:
From: William Robinson <adamuabdullahi20100@gmail.com>
Reply-To: williamrobenson8@gmail.com
Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2023 07:56:12 +0100
Subject: UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME (UNDP)
Sweden address Birger Jarlsgatan 57 C 113 56 Stockholm Sweden
USA Address 405 East 42nd Street New York NY 10017 USA
Our Ref WB/NF/UN/098/2022
UN Payment Code 06898
Attention UN Beneficiary We bring greetings to you in the name of the lord
This message is
sent to you as a notification that you have been chosen to benefit from the
charity project aimed at touching lives and helping those that we can
across the world
Be informed that United Nations In conjunction with United States
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT GRANTS (F-G-G) wishes to
entrust the sum of 5 Million Dollar ($5000000 USD) for each individual for
the people United States South America Europe Asia and some other countries
in Africa for the construction of churches school children hospital
medicines They're also helping the old young deaf blind working retired and
disabled with fund We discovered that most Cities are facing a lot of
poverty joblessness and creativity in most of their locality and upgrade
their society/community by using this fund to assist the orphanage home
blind working retired and disabled creation of local jobs opportunities
This program tagged Grass-Roots Program is part ts to receive Five Million
Dollars This donation is made out to you so to enable you strengthen your
personal issues and mostly to generously help us extend hands of giving to
the less privileged, orphans and charity organizations within your locality
This new program was established by the UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAMME (UNDP) in conjunction with United States FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
GRANTS to help people in the society to meet up their needs
i will give you the details of the bank once i hear from you send us your
information such as
1) Scan Copy of Your National Identity Card or your International Passport
2) Full Names
3) Residential Address
4) Country
5) Nationality
6) Mobile Number
7) Occupation
Yours faithfully
Mr. William Robinson
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